Silent screen
MICHAEL HENDERSON
Edinburgh
We only have the sound on for major sporting occasions,' explains David MacKenzie, proprietor of the finest bar in a city not short of outstanding pubs, as we watch England play South Africa on the box. And by that I mean rugby and cricket. There would be no sound for football, or. if we did turn it up, it would only be so that people couldn't quite hear what was being said.'
If you think I'm going to reveal the pub's identity, think again. I was introduced to it by an American friend 11 years ago, and I have in turn brought along friends and associates so they can enjoy it for themselves. But none of us is obliged to reveal its name, and MacKenzie is not complaining. Indeed, he values the secrecy. Any drinker worth his malt knows where this great bar is, and the others can go where they like. 'We're only 300 yards from Princes Street,' says the innkeeper. 'and yet some people don't know it. It's like a hidden garden.' There is no piped music, no machines, and the telly is only for sport. The ale, from both sides of the border, is toothsome, the top shelf is impressive, the company friendly and it is small enough to feel like a local — even though people come from far and wide, particularly on international days at Murrayfield. The grub's good. too, though if you prefer sliced carrot in raspberry coulis to haggis you may be disappointed.
It was a good place to watch England lose a Test match (it would have been better to see them win) because it offered a reminder that many Scots enjoy their cricket. As MacKenzie says, 'There are more registered cricketers in this country than rugby players,' and people regard England as their side, which is not the case with rugby and certainly not with football. Mike Denness, who captained England three decades ago, was a Scot, and there have been a few more down the years.
This summer, Scotland have beaten Sussex and Lancashire in one-day cricket, and, as Sussex lead the County Championship and Lancashire are third, that is a fair achievement. Perhaps it is time for England to start thinking about staging the occasional one-day international in Edin
burgh, where the Grange ground was used as a venue for the 1999 World Cup. England could not play Australia there, obviously, but there is no reason why they shouldn't play Sri Lanka or New Zealand. It would do everybody a lot of good, not least spectators who are thirsty and curious.
The Edinburgh drinkers certainly displayed a surer feel for the game last week than Marcus Trescothick, the England batsman who took the gormless decision to accept an offer of bad light when he and Mark Butcher were carting the South African bowlers all around Headingley. That was not the reason for England's defeat but it was a contributory factor, and it made them look stupid.
So, another marvellous time in this great city, described so patronisingly (and inaccurately) last week by Lloyd Evans, Peter Stein's Seagull, Haitink conducting Mahler, Andras Schiff playing Beethoven — and Rosie Millard, the BBC's 'arts correspondent', coming a cropper at the Books Festival, where she faced Paul Johnson, who has forgotten more about the visual arts than she will ever know. And, of course, time well spent in a certain pub, the name of which escapes me. Happy hunting!
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